


Downpour

by VespidaeQueen



Category: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kissing in the Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-06
Updated: 2013-09-06
Packaged: 2017-12-25 18:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VespidaeQueen/pseuds/VespidaeQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he finally musters up the nerve to kiss her, it's raining.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Downpour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rhiannon87](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhiannon87/gifts).



> Written for Rhiannon42 for the prompts "jawline kiss" and "kiss in the rain." Set after the series finale to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

It is two weeks since they managed to keep Galactus from eating Earth, and Steve hugged Jan in the aftermath, and in that time he has done absolutely nothing to follow up on that hug.

Not that he wouldn't like to do more. More than just hug. Which was a spur of the moment thing, really, and if he'd actually thought about it in advance he probably...wouldn't have. Not publicly on the street like that. Not when Hank was about two feet away, and while he knows that they aren't together anymore and he's not completely certain if they were ever  _officially_ together, it's still...

He really hadn't been thinking much beyond  _we've defeated Galactus_ and  _Jan's all right._  

Steve is  _really_ bad at initiating things. Exceedingly bad. With Peggy, it had  _all_ been Peggy. Obviously, he'd been - he'd  _wanted_ to - it's just -

He can lead armies and make great speeches and wear spangly skin-tight pants, but trying to talk to a woman who he's interested in  _about_ being interested in her and maybe possibly wanting to kiss her is harder than any of those things combined.

Maybe, if he'd said something right  _after?_ But there had been press conferences and reports, and by the time he managed to get a moment semi-alone with Jan (semi-alone because Clint had been lurking in the kitchen looking for cereal and Steve couldn't have told him to get out without it seeming very suspicious) he had fallen back on talk about tactics and how had it been for her acting as a field leader?

The answer had come in about five minutes of very excited chatter, and then she'd had to leave, and Clint had given him a  _look_ like he knew exactly what was going on but wasn't going to say anything.

That had been the last chance he'd had to say anything for awhile.

Because after that, there were Mindless Ones in Central Park (they needed to call in Doctor Strange for that one), Moloids in the sewers (something which seemed to occur on an almost regular basis these days), and aliens on the moon (well, not aliens, exactly. Inhumans. On the moon). And that is just in one week.

Much of the second week is spent dreaming. Night Mares, Thor explains when it's over, and apologizes profusely even though it's not  _precisely_ his fault.

Steve is not exactly okay immediately after that. Because created dream-worlds for him always seem to focus in on one thing, and that's an image of the life he could have had, if it hadn't been for the ice. Only this time it's an odd blending of the life he could have had then with what he has now, and he wakes from the Night Mare induced dreams to feeling disoriented and not quite grounded. Jan, who'd been pulled into the dreaming not far from him, looks shaken when she wakes, wide-eyed and blinking as though trying to piece things back together.

For a moment, he could have sworn she looked at him and her breath had caught.

They do not talk about their dreams.

So time drags on, and it takes them further from that point when he hugged her in the aftermath of the battle with Galactus, and  _nothing happens_.

Steve is fairly convinced that nothing ever will, because he sure as hell doesn't know how to make the first steps that he would like to.

*

Tuesday morning, it rains.

Pours, really, the sort of torrential rain that makes it impossible for certain small insect Avengers to fly, and they shouldn't have been out in it in the first place, but supervillains happen, even on rainy Tuesday mornings.

Only it  _hadn't_ been raining when they set out, and Jan had flown out to this particular fight and now?

Now, she is on the back of Steve's motorcycle as they ride back to the mansion. She's got her arms wrapped around his waist to secure herself, her chest pressed up against his back.

They are both absolutely soaking wet.

"We could have just called for a quinjet, you know," she says in his ear, loud enough that he can hear her over the roar of the bike and the sound of the rain. "Or a  _car_."

"No sense in that when we're so close to home!" he calls back, and he can't see her face, but he is  _pretty certain_ that she's making a displeased expression at him.

"We shouldn't even be  _driving_ in this! You're going to skid out and it's going to  _suck majorly_."

"Not going to happen, Jan."

She grumbles something that he can't hear, but he feels the vibration of the words through where her chest is pressed against him.

He is  _very_ aware of how she's holding on to him.

"What was that?"

"I said I -" They come to a stoplight and it's easier to hear "- should have just ridden in your pocket. Or gone down your shirt again."

He blinks. He's pretty certain that he's just gone red.

Steve very clearly remembers what she's referencing.  _Very_ clearly.

He hadn't even realized she'd hidden down the back of his shirt until - well. Until she'd revealed that she'd hitched a ride.

"I'm afraid that, at the rate this is going, you'd only get wetter if you were inside, so if you're trying to find a drier spot -" He stops when she makes a sort of strangled sound. "Jan?"

" _Ohmygod_."

" _Jan?_ "

He mentally replays what he just said. He is pretty glad that no one can see his face right now, because he's probably gone bright red.

"That's not what I -"

"Just drive, Cap."

He can feel her laughing. Steve takes that as a good sign.

They are only a few blocks from the mansion, and it thankfully doesn't take much longer to get there. Water sprays up as they come to a halt, and Jan jumps off the back of the bike.

"Oh my god, why won't it just  _stop raining_." She's absolutely drenched, her hair plastered to her face and dripping water into her eyes.

For a moment, he thinks she's going to just dart straight into the mansion to dry off. But then she hesitates - he almost misses it, her moment of hesitation, he's looking down at his bike for a moment and -

"Thank you for the ride, Steve," she says, and she presses a kiss to his cheek.

Or.

Well.

For all intents and purposes, that's what she  _tries_ to do. But he looks up at the exact wrong moment and her kiss hits more along his jaw, and if he'd moved just a hair more the very outer corner of her mouth would have touched his.

Steve freezes. Rain falling on his helmet spills down in front of his face.

"I -"

"Sorry," Jan says, ducking back, and she has an awkward smile on her face. "I didn't mean for  _that_ to happen. The awkward, not the - you know." She gestures to her own face. "Kiss. On the cheek. I meant that."

There is a fluttering, hopeful feeling somewhere in his chest. He thinks  _I wanted to do more than hug her that day_ , and he thinks that -  _maybe_ -

"Jan?" he says.

"Mmhm? Yeah?"

"Would it be all right if I kissed you?"

It is still raining. He's sitting on his bike, soaked to the skin, and Janet van Dyne is standing beside him, also soaked, the skirt of her dress hanging heavy around her thighs, and she says -

"Yeah. Yes. I was wondering if - yes."

And then she leans down and he tips his head up and he kisses her.

Or maybe she kisses him. Or they just  _kiss_ , that might be it. Her lips are soft but cool from the rain, and her gloves are wet when she reaches up to cup his face. Her head tips and rain falls on her cheek, running down her neck.

At first, his hands are still on his bike, but then he turns, one arm wrapping around her waist. It is awkward, balancing on the motorcycle while trying to kiss her - while  _kissing her_ , there's no trying involved - but he keeps a foot firmly on the ground and he tugs her close. His other hand comes up to tangle in her wet hair, and as he leans further into the kiss he feels the tip of her tongue and he cannot help the quick intake of breath he makes.

It barely crosses his mind that he is kissing Jan on a public street outside of the Avengers mansion in the rain.

Well. It  _certainly_ crosses his mind that he is  _kissing Jan_.

In the rain.

He pulls back to catch his breath and rainwater drips down his face. Jan is grinning at him, half her hair now a mess of tangles, the other half plastered to his face.

"Maybe we should take this inside," he says, and her smile seems to grow wider.

"Maybe we should  _continue_ this inside?" He would  _swear_ she bats her eyelashes at him. There is a giddy, elated feeling centered somewhere in his chest, and he finds himself grinning right back at her.

"I would like that, Jan. A lot."


End file.
